Library Board of Trustees

The Woodstock Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Robert Laurie called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Laurie (President), Christy Johanson (Vice President), Mary Ann Lenzen, Sarah Parisi, Mary Sugden, Gayle Hoch OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Christensen (Deputy City Manager), Carrie Zamorano (Library Circulation Manager), Jessica Beverly (Rural Board Trustee (departed at 7:59) Tiara Thayer (Library Assistant II) ABSENT: Mary Beth Urbin (Secretary), Susan Gullotto, Gabi Ordóñez APPROVAL OF MINUTES Discussion and Vote on approving the Regular Minutes from the August 2024 meeting as presented or corrected. Mary Sugden moved to approve the minutes of the August 2024 regular meeting as presented. Sarah Parisi seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS: Robert Laurie shared that he recently learned about the PrairieCat Mobile App which includes a digital copy of your WPL library card. COMMUNICATIONS: None. LIBRARY EXPENDITURES Discussion and Vote on the August 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures. Christy Johanson moved to approve the August 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented. Robert Laurie seconded, and the motion carried with unanimous ayes. LIBRARIAN’S REPORT Carrie Zamorano presented the librarian’s report, a copy of which is attached. Highlights include: • The weekend of August 9th featured a host of programs, including: The Bull Valley Garden Club Flower Show, a gallery display of Kathy Weber’s watercolor paintings, a display of items from the local woodworker’s guild, an amateur nature photography display for the McHenry County Land Conservancy. The local spinners group also met 1  up at the library to spin their fibers into yarn. That weekend truly showcased the library’s ability to serve the community and host engaging programming. • The Year of the Book program focuses on facilitating engagement with book culture and local authors. This month, the library hosted Kathy Spaltro who spoke about her new book about Lionel Barrymore. The library also hosted a book tunnel craft as part of the Year of the Book program. • The library collaborated with the other McHenry County libraries to bring William Kent Kreuger to McHenry County College. • Austin Nord received excellent attendance and reviews from his technology assistance program. • Lisa Rossi-Moser and Katie Bradley were able to sign up 11 teachers from the Crystal Lake Montessori School. Lisa and Katie are also collaborating with McHenry County College to host an escape room. NEW BUSINESS • Review of Board Bylaws and officer responsibilities o This topic was postponed until the October meeting, when Nick will be present. • Discussion and possible vote on Library Landscape Design proposals o Out of the five RFQs sent out, the library received one from Bluestem Ecological Services. o Carrie expressed her personal investment in the landscaping project as a way of encouraging the community to engage with nature and provide additional meaningful services to our patrons. o Gayle voiced her concern over some of the design examples included in the Bluestem RFQ as being too overwhelming. Carrie and Jessica explained that the library would have creative input and would be under no obligation to fill the space to maximum plant capacity. o The auxiliary parking lot is also being considered and included in the rest of the landscaping. The hope is that Bluestem will be able to guide what is best and needed for the auxiliary parking lot space. o Carrie and Jessica confirmed that their landscaping committee feels confident in Bluestem’s ability to meet the library’s landscaping needs. o Mary Ann Lenzen moved to accept the Bluestem Ecological Services proposal. Christy Johanson seconded and the motion passed via roll call: Robert Laurie Christy Johanson Mary Ann Lenzen Sarah Parisi Yea Yea Yea Yea Mary Sugden Gayle Hoch Mary Beth Urbin Susan Gullotto Yea Yea Absent Absent Gabi Ordóñez Absent UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Building Update o There are no updates concerning the roof leak repairs, but no new leaks have been discovered. o There are no new updates for the pneumatics system upgrade. o On October 1st, the library will be getting a new cleaning service. This will be a citywide contract. • Staffing Update o Staffing has been a little challenging due to various illnesses sweeping through the building. 2  o 12 zoom interviews have been conducted for the children’s librarian position, with 4 finalists being invited back for a second interview. These candidates were supposed to interview again this week, but needed to be rescheduled due to staff illness. One finalist has since withdrawn their candidacy. o The management team is still exploring options for filling the LAII vacancy. • Friends of the Library Update o The Friends’ fall plant sale featured primarily mums. These plant sales have been held for 14 years, and each year has been successful. o Carrie shared that the Friends plan to meet with the rural board to talk about the upcoming ambassador program. The Friends are also working with Lisa Rossi- Moser to include young adult patrons in the ambassador program. o The Culver’s fundraiser for the library will be tomorrow, Friday September 13th. ADJOURNMENT Mary Sugden moved that the meeting be adjourned at 8:14 p.m. Gayle Hoch seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. Respectfully submitted, Tiara Thayer All meetings of the Library Board are open to the public. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they are fully accessible, and if any further accommodations are needed, please contact the Library Director 48 hours prior to the meeting. 3  Woodstock Public Library Administrative & Staff Reports – September 2024 DIRECTOR’S REPORT We are fully into fall programming in September and October, with a lot of interesting speakers and other events happening at the library. Staffing remains a challenge, but there are some positive things happening on that front as well. Outreach and collaboration with other agencies remained a focal point for the staff. With school fully underway, September and October tend to shift into a more Adult Services focus, along with lots of fall activities. This year we had a speaker for Banned Books Week, as well as a local author visit. A series of retirement focused events took place in late September, including both a Medicare explanation session and a Social Security overview session. U.S. Representative Bill Foster was at the library for an event discussing weather preparedness, something that he and his staff are passionate about. Staffing was slightly better in September, though we were still without a Children’s Librarian, and also one of our Library Assistant IIs. The search for our new Children’s Librarian has concluded, and we are waiting on the final paperwork items to be completed so that Heather, our preferred candidate, can start. The rest of the staff, and particularly the Youth Services staff, continue to cover all the things, but are very much looking forward to Heather’s arrival in the next week or two. Things are moving forward with the landscaping project, with a preliminary meeting with Bluestem Environmental happening in early October. Bluestem is taking the feedback received at that meeting to begin working up a first draft of the new landscape plan. The library continues to move ahead with eliminating its old pneumatic control system for the HVAC units in the old building, replacing them with modern, digital controls which can be monitored and changed remotely. This year’s Capital Improvement Plan will focus on the new Landscaping Design and on resurfacing the staff and public parking lots. CIRCULATION & PROGRAMMING September 2024 Circulation was up slightly in September compared to 2023, though in-person visits to the building were down slightly from last year. We had 20,175 items, both physical and digital, checked-out, a 1.0% increase from 19,908 in 2023. 9,860 people came to the library in September, down 5% from 10,422 in 2023. FINANCIALS Spending out of the new fiscal budget is underway, and we have already surpassed our budgeted donation total thanks to a generous $20,000 from one of our longtime supporters. The new budget includes raises for all staff, ranging from 3-5%, with most of the other budget lines holding steady, or getting small increases. MEETING/ORGANIZATION SUMMARIES City Meetings/City News The City Council meetings in late September and early October were mostly routine. The September 17 meeting included the city’s support for Hispanic Heritage month, while the October 1 meeting featured the awarding of a prestigious prize to the city for their financing work on the Old Courthouse Complex revitalization. CIRCULATION SERVICES Local photographer Terry Loncaric was the featured artist in our gallery. She partnered this exhibit with a program about her new book Poems from a Restless Traveler for our Year of the Book series. PrairieCat hosted their annual PUG (PrairieCat Users Group) Day conference. Carrie and Katie led a session on how to host a local author showcase. After hosting a successful showcase themselves, in the spring, they shared tips and tricks, what worked for them, and future ideas for their next local author showcase. Ally, assisted by Carrie and Katie, led a session on book repair. We received great feedback on this session from both PrairieCat staff and other member library staff. St. Mary Catholic School is now the third school to participate in our Teacher Library Card program for the 2024-2025 school year. As a member of McHenry County Libraries - Let's All Read Together, which is a coalition of McHenry County public libraries, we hosted William Kent Krueger, at McHenry County College for a discussion moderated by Heidi Stevens. Katie worked with Apple Creek Flowers for a donation of two low and lush arrangements for the book signing table. ADULT SERVICES The Escape Room program in October, a joint effort with MCC, has all slots reserved, which is excellent. There are several collaborations with the Rec Department and the Opera House happening. Shifting in the adult non-fiction section is continuing, allowing us to ease overcrowding in the middle of the non-fiction ranges. Technology Assistance Appointments • 1-on-1 Appointments Requested: 11 • Resolutions: 7 • Cancellations: 4 • Most Common Consultation Subject: Computer • Average Number of Days for Resolution: 8 Adult Programming • Total # of Adult Programs: 17 o 16- in-person o 1- virtual • Total Programming Attendance: 207 • Top-Performing Programs by Attendance: o An Afternoon w/ William Kent Krueger- 40 o Weather Preparedness with Rep. Bill Foster- 27 o McHenry Co. Civil War Roundtable- 18 Passives (formerly Misc. Stats) • My "Explore the Animal Kingdom" book display had 3 checkouts. Next month's theme is Homesteading & Sustainable Farming. • The library hosted one outreach table event from SOAR @ Dorr. • Starting in October, I am putting out a crossword puzzle for the public in both the Reading Room and Senior Area. LIBRARY OUTREACH Lisa Rossi-Moser is collaborating with Bridget Harvey, District 200 Librarian, to see how we can help teachers reserve multiple copies of specific books so that staff and children may have access provided by WPL. The event will take place in February. We are working on a solution. Lisa and Katie Bradley invited the Opera House employees, Betsy Cosgray and Amelia Rothstein, to join in our collaboration meetings every first Wednesday of the month. Lisa met with McHenry County College to continue her collaboration for the escape room on September 23rd and the 30th. Homebound update: Bailey Rewoldt, our Homebound Librarian, has reported the following: Homebound visits-41 Homebound items delivered-209 Newspapers donated to Wildlife Resource Center CALENDAR (https://woodstock.librarycalendar.com/) Upcoming Events & Dates of Import: • Sundays: Library is open 1-5 pm • Tuesday, October 15, 6:30- 7:30 pm: The Codebreaker and the POW • Wednesday, October 16, 6:30- 7:30 pm: Reclaim Her Name, part 2 • Sunday, October 20, Noon- 4:00 pm: Witches and Wizards of Woodstock • Tuesday, October 29, 6:30-7:30 pm: The Rule of Rum • Thursday, October 31, 4:00-5:00 pm: Trick-or-Treating on the Square • Thursday, October 31, 4:30 pm- 5:30 pm: Music to Trick-or-Treat To—a piano concert • Tuesday, Nov. 5, All Day: Polling place for 2024 General Election